There was a time when the monster waves at the Mavericks surf break were known only to a small band of local diehards. That was before the first surf contest was held, before media outlets and corporate sponsors made Mavericks the best-known big wave surf spot in California.

“There was zero hype, zero marketing, zero branding in the beginning,” reminisced Pacifica native Shawn Rhodes, who has competed in every Mavericks surf contest since 1998.

That all changed a few years ago, when Mavericks began attracting a number of big-name corporate sponsors, including Verizon Wireless, Hard Rock and Clif Bar. Past sponsors have included Coca-Cola.

Mavericks’ new look has drawn criticism from insiders.

“I think the whole thing could have been handled better from the beginning. The marketing guys mean well, but I don’t think the wave has gotten the respect it deserves. Everything that’s popular like this is seen as something to make money off of,” said Rhodes.

The Mavericks Surf Contest has been held four times since it was founded in 1998 as a Quiksilver-sponsored event called Men Who Ride Mountains. It reunites 24 of the world’s best big-wave surfers on 24 hours’ notice. While that tradition hasn’t changed, the hype surrounding it has.

As soon as local surfing legend Jeff Clark calls the contest, more than 30,000 surfing fans jam the bluff overlooking the surf break. Media pack the press boat and send cameras up in helicopters. Last year, footage of the surf event reached television audiences in more than 70 countries. It generated a half a billion news media impressions over the Internet.

This year, NBC will broadcast a big-budget Mavericks feature on the Reuters screen in Times Square.

“Mavericks is a very big deal now. There’s hundreds of people involved, spending thousands of hours,” said Keir Beadling, CEO of Evolve Sports in San Francisco.

Three years ago, Evolve partnered with Clark to create Mavericks Surf Ventures, Inc., the company that markets the surf competition. They hired a brand image consultant, and a design firm to create a new logo. They launched a high-tech Web site, http://www.maverickssurf.com, to publicize the event and sell Mavericks brand T-shirts and official event DVDs.

Beadling said the company followed strict ethical standards in promoting the event, pointing out that their partnership with Clif Bar would allow them to buy enough renewable energy credits to offset the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the event.

“We make sure that everything we do passes muster with the 24 guys in the contest. There’s a reason we’re not selling (our) T-shirts at Wal-Mart,” said Beadling.

“It’s an expensive event for us to put on. We do need to go out and get sponsorship dollars,” he added.

Those dollars are used for everything from renting cruise ships to staging the after-party, said Beadling. Not to mention the $55,000 prize for winning surfers, and a diamond-encrusted watch for the Mavericks champion, donated by another sponsor.

Rhodes said the prize money was a bonus for surfers who, like him, are raising children.

He’s also being sponsored by Billabong, which gives him free clothes.

“It’s good for sponsored surfers, because we can make money off of something we never made money off of before. It’s been bad for the average surfer, because the place is so overrun now,” he said.

Santa Cruz-born freelance journalist Ben Marcus wrote the first-ever article about the waves at Mavericks point for Surfer Magazine in 1990. Clark had been surfing the break by himself since the 1970s; his friends only got wind of it a decade later.

Back then, no one but the surfers knew that the biggest waves in California were cresting half a mile off the shore in Princeton by-the-Sea in wintertime. These days, tourists race out to the surf break with a camera at the smallest ripple in the ocean.

“I told Clark, ‘You can keep it quiet or blow the lid.’ And he said, ‘Mavericks can take care of itself,'” remembered Marcus.

Clark said the sponsorship model rightfully helped honor the surfers who conquer the most dangerous waves in California. He compared it to an extreme Olympic sport.

“For these guys to be rewarded for their efforts in riding giant waves is pretty cool,” he said.

Rhodes said the media exposure was useful, too: he hopes to launch a Mavericks line of apparel someday.

“People have criticized Jeff for selling the place out,” said Rhodes. “But my answer is, someone was going to sell it out eventually. As long as Jeff stays involved, it will have a little soul.”

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